In his pursuit of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Rand Paul has made sure to put lots of distance between himself and his father—and Dad appears to be firing back.Ron Paul does not approve of his son Rand Paul’s position on the Iran deal, and he let him know Thursday evening in a speech that called him out—though not by name. “Right now one of the big issues, you know, in the news, probably on foreign policy, is whether or not the Obama administration should talk to the Iranians,” the elder Paul told the crowd at the Young Americans for...

Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) is attributing GOP rival Donald Trump's rise in the polls to a momentary "loss of sanity." "I think this is a temporary sort of loss of sanity, but we're going to come back to our senses and look for someone serious to lead the country at some point," Paul said told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer on his show, when asked about a new national poll showing Trump still atop the crowded GOP field. Paul pointed to the extensive media coverage of the controversial candidate. "Television works, Wolf," said Paul. "If you would give some other candidates...

“The U.S. Empire received a big boost from the 9/11 attack.” Former Rep. Ron Paul, the father of presidential candidate Rand Paul and past two-time candidate for the Republican nomination himself, writes in his new book that he believes “Zionism has played a role in our post-9/11 march toward empire.” Paul’s book, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity, was released last Friday. “Zionism has played a role in our post-9/11 march toward empire, and its influence has encouraged extreme interference in the Middle East,” Paul writes in a chapter entitled “Making America...

Last week's successfully concluded Iran agreement is one of the two most important achievements of an otherwise pretty dismal Obama presidency. Along with the ongoing process of normalizing relations with Cuba, this move shows that diplomacy can produce peaceful, positive changes. It also shows that sometimes taking a principled position means facing down overwhelming opposition from all sides and not backing down. The president should be commended for both of these achievements. The agreement has reduced the chance of a U.S. attack on Iran, which is a great development. But the interventionists will not give up so easily. Already they...

Rand Paul’s father Ron does not appear to be among the over 100,000 donors so far to his son’s presidential campaign. According to the younger Paul’s recent Federal Election Commission filing, the elder Paul, a former Texas congressman who himself ran for president three times, has yet to donate to his son’s 2016 presidential campaign — at least not more than the $200 threshold where his donation would be required to report. Rand’s mother, Carol, does not appear to have donated her son’s campaign yet either. In contrast, the other Republican presidential contender with a storied political family, Jeb Bush,...

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura says he’s backing Sen. Bernie Sanders in his bid for president. In a blog post on his independent media site, Ventura praised Sanders for challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination. “I think what Bernie Sanders is doing is extremely healthy,” Ventura wrote. “I love the idea of somebody throwing a fly in the ointment.” This isn’t the first time Ventura backed a presidential candidate looking to shake up the system. In 2008 and 2012, Ventura backed Republican Ron Paul for president. In 2004, Ventura backed Democrat John Kerry against Republican President George W. Bush....

Former Republican Rep. Ron Paul on Wednesday blasted GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump as a “dangerous” authoritarian on a power trip who won’t value civil liberties the way a U.S. president should. “I think he’s is a dangerous person,” saidMr. Paul, whose son, Sen. Rand Paul is running against Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. “And a lot of people find him sort of funny, and love him, even Libertarian types,” Mr. Paul, who is now a registered Libertarian, lamented on Fox News Radio. “They like him because he’s so disruptive to the party system, and I enjoy that...

President Obama has two routes for getting the Iran nuclear deal approved by Congress. The more difficult path involves attempting to woo Republicans, though they've already vowed to kill the deal. Or Obama could just shore up support among Democrats so when he vetoes the GOP's "resolution of disapproval" Congress won't have the votes to override him. Supposedly the White House has not settled on which path it will pursue, but Obama's decision to invoke the name of the GOP's favorite human in explaining his rationale for the deal suggests he isn't all that concerned about angering them further.

The Iranian nuclear deal is a big step toward world peace, and Republicans would be praising it if one of their own had negotiated it, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul told Newsmax TV's "The Hard Line."Paul told host Ed Berliner that the deal echoed Ronald Reagan's deal with the Soviets in the 1980s. Paul's biggest problem with the deal was that the United States had to work under the confines of the United Nations and NATO. "There's something to be said about moving in the direction of at least talking to people instead of saying, 'All right, you're scoundrels, we'll...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Anna Núńez, ACLU of Texas, 713-942-8146, Ext. 110, media@aclutx.org [1] HOUSTON – In separate written requests submitted today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas demanded two Texas police departments provide a full accounting of recent incidents involving excessive use of force in the City of McKinney and mass arrests in the City of Waco. Though unrelated, the events share a common problem: police abuse and lack of transparency and accountability. “In order to maintain the trust of the communities they serve, law enforcement agencies must embrace transparency in their operations, especially when questionable incidents...

It's past time the government stop treating the tax code as a tool for social engineering.It’s happening. Less than a week after the Supreme Court ruled that gays have the right to marry, the argument in favor of polygamy as the "next advance"(in the words of Fredrick DeBoer at Politico) in marriage equality is beginning to be deployed. He writes: Now that we've defined that love and devotion and family isn't driven by gender alone, why should it be limited to just two individuals? The most natural advance next for marriage lies in legalized polygamy—yet many of the same people...

RED OAK, Iowa — Sen. Ted Cruz wound his way through the small towns and rolling hills of western Iowa last week, doing the gruntwork of retail campaigning: shaking hands, posing for photos, giving stump speechesand, most importantly: making entreaties for support in a state that could determine the trajectory of his presidential campaign. “Whether we win or lose, this race will be decided by the men and women gathered here,” he said last Friday to a group of mostly older people sitting on folding chairs in a conference room. Iowa’s first-in-the nation caucuses are often a high-stakes event for...

One month ago yesterday, on the early afternoon of May 17, in and outside the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, a bevy of marauding motorcycle gangs who had gathered to create some sort of criminal trouble (the cops had already warned the restaurant to not let them meet there) began a wild melee of shooting at each other and at police. Nine people would eventually lose their lives, and 18 others were wounded. Waco police (including a SWAT team) and officers from the state Department of Public Safety–who were all already on the scene, aware of the potential for...

The resignation on Tuesday of McKinney, Texas policeman Eric Casebolt after the widespread viewing of a video showing Casebolt drawing his gun and brutalizing a teenager outside a pool party may not be enough to bring justice, suggests Judge Andrew Napolitano. Napolitano, in a Fox Business interview, argues that it would be proper to prosecute Casebolt. Reviewing the video footage, Napolitano explains to host Stuart Varney that Casebolt, who Napolitano calls a Â“hothead,Â” appears to have committed an illegal assault: Varney: The police officer could be guilty of a crime? Napolitano: Oh sure, itÂ’s an assault for him to pull...

Circumstances surrounding the deadly Waco biker rally remain unclear, and local police are shielding details of the incident from the public. “This just builds up more suspicion on our government,” Ron Paul said during his latest Liberty Report. The three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Representative Paul raised concerns about the ever-growing number of questions about the biker rally shooting, including why the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved, what evidence the Waco Police Department gathered from the incident, how the shooting got started, the number of weapons on the scene, and who shot whom. Nearly 1,000 bikers rallied in...

Tea Party hero's roadmap to the presidency borrows from the failed presidential runs of Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani.It’s sometimes easy to forget that Ted Cruz is running for president. While other 2016 Republican candidates are out giving big speeches and attaching themselves to causes and making trips to Europe, Cruz has stayed relatively quiet, which is strange given that his animating purpose up to this point has been to loudly remind you that Ted Cruz exists. The biggest headlines Cruz has earned for himself lately were for a dumb joke he told about Joe Biden just after the vice...

At Powerline this week, Steve Hayward penned a post aptly entitled “The Insincerity of Rand Paul.” The senator’s legal arguments against the Patriot Act, he posits, mimic papa Ron Paul’s 2003 calls for a formal declaration of war against Iraq: mere “constitutional punctilio to cover his real feelings.” Steve is right. Congress statutorily authorized the use of military force in Iraq. Nothing more was constitutionally required. The real reason for Representative Ron Paul’s formalistic nattering about a declaration of war was his opposition to American intervention in Iraq. That, in turn, was driven by his theory that it was American...

He’s turning out to be a lot like his father, unable or unwilling to adjust to changing political realities within his party.There are many reasons to be bullish about Rand Paul's unconventional campaign for president. He's relentlessly courting support from young voters and African Americans, making the explicit case that outreach can translate into wider support. He's embracing issues that Republicans usually don't dare touch, such as criminal-justice reform, drug decriminalization, and reining in government surveillance. And based on the early polls, he's finding himself in solid shape, running competitively against Hillary Clinton and in the top tier of Republican...

Ron Paul, libertarian hero, three-time presidential candidate and father of senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that his record will only help his son, who is currently running for president himself. "It probably helps more than it hurts," the former Texas congressman said on Ora TV's "PoliticKING," when asked whether his particular brand of politics would "hurt or help" Rand Paul. The elder Paul also said he believes his son has had a better time than he did overcoming an independent-minded bent, and that he has worked well within the establishment, unlike his father. "McConnell has endorsed him...

The Kentucky senator walks a tight line between pleasing libertarians and alienating moderates.Rand Paul is a man besieged. Eight weeks into his White House bid, the Kentucky Republican is hurting for deep-pocketed donors, watching supporters of his libertarian father, Ron Paul, gravitate toward opponents and getting flogged by a GOP establishment that abhors his calls for a less interventionist approach to foreign policy. But his latest confrontation with Republican power brokers — a move to block the renewal of the PATRIOT Act and federal spying programs — has also exposed Paul’s increasingly imperiled tightrope walk toward his party’s nomination. “His...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’s America’s Liberty Super PAC is out with a new ad attacking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as a “Canadian” who supports President Obama on domestic surveillance extensions in the Patriot Act. The extreme-style smackdown ad features Paul as the shirtless hero of a Sunday brawl in the Senate over the NSA and the right to privacy. Featuring a picture of Cruz with Obama and the backdrop of a Canadian flag, the ad calls the Texas Senator a “capitulating Canadian” who is “backing Barack’s bill.” Technically, the ad is not endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)'s campaign, but...

Jeb Bush began a talk the other day by addressing the issue of his brother George, noted architect of the Iraq war, and he did not shrink from the challenge. "I can't deny the fact that I love my family," announced Jeb. So if you suspected that the Bush Thanksgivings in Kennebunkport resemble "August: Osage County" -- with lots of screaming, sobbing and clawing -- you probably feel pretty silly right now. On a more pertinent question -- whether the war was a wise idea -- the answer is not so clear. The former governor of Florida first said that,...

The 2016 presidential election is attracting an unusually large number of hopefuls. The Republicans will probably field more than a dozen candidates and the Democrats, as many as five. Presently, very few of these supposed contenders have a real chance of becoming president. Republicans Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz are long shots. On the Democratic side, that term applies to everyone but Hillary Rodham Clinton.. ~snip~ If you tell them in private, "You do not have a chance to be president," they will point to underdogs who won, such as Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan, or front-runners who...

For the uninitiated, the Oath Keepers is a group of law enforcement officials and military types whose goal is to uphold the Constitution, unless the government starts getting unconstitutionally tyrannical in their business. With that in mind, here’s one of them calling for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to be tried and hung to death. Via Right Wing Watch comes a video of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes speaking to a conservative gathering in Arizona. In the middle of his speech, reminding the audience of how Ron Paul delegates were shut out of the 2008 GOP convention he blasted the former...

Every Republican likes to think he or she is the next Ronald Reagan. Some who say this do so for lack of their own ideas and agenda. Reagan was a great leader and President. But too often people make him into something he wasn’t in order to serve their own political purposes.

Lots of people in the Republican party are fed up with Sen. Ted Cruz, but Sen. Rand Paul is the guy who is doing something about it. On Monday, the conservative news website, Breitbart News, published an op-ed by Paul, where the senator from Kentucky took Cruz to task -- without ever actually naming the guy who may be beloved by the Tea Party conservatives, but has earned some pretty impressive dislike from the elected members of his own party -- for his hijinks that Paul said have encouraged divisions within the party: "I don't claim to be the next...

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul will host a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus next week to discuss criminal justice reform. The libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky has long been an outspoken advocate for changing how the American criminal system prosecutes and sentences. Now he’s teaming up with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and other black lawmakers, to craft a strategy for advancing legislation as law enforcement issues have taken center stage following the death of several unarmed black men at the hands of police. “Not only is Senator Paul the [S]enate co-sponsor of the Justice Safety Valve Act, which...

Ever since Chuck Norris wrote his WND editorial about how the federal government was organizing a martial law takeover, it seems that every Texas conservative is pushing that idea, reported Talking Points Memo. Now, it seems that every notable, political Texan is driving the idea that the military training exercise called “Jade Helm 15” is actually a planned takeover of the state. What’s more fascinating is that every single one of these politicians and talking heads are Texans. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was among the first Texas figureheads to bring Jade Helm 15 to national attention when he ordered the...

Circling the Drain in Baltimore Commentary for 3 May 2015 The NSA has made a coloring book for kids. Why not? Our intelligence community has been catering to adult children for the last fifty years. Political correctness at the NSA, as with the CIA, long ago reached a level incompatible with national security. The NSA even has an Earth Day mascot/cartoon character. As a provocation, political correctness is a scheme for neutralizing and discrediting America’s most important institutions. Long ago James Burnham explained that latter-day liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide. And who, in the end, will fight for...

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is putting a lot of emphasis on Iowa in his presidential campaign, is continuing to notch endorsements from some well-known activists in the state. Former Secretary of State Matt Schultz told the Quad-City Times on Wednesday he is endorsing Cruz for president. "I’m looking for somebody who’s going to stand up and fight for our country, and he gives me hope we can turn things around," said Schultz, who is now the Madison County Attorney. "He's not going to back down from a fight." In a letter to two dozen members of the Cruz...

<p>Interesting, not because itâ€™s a surprise that Ron Paulâ€™s son feels this way â€” remember this? â€” but because this is a subject that every Republican in the field, Rand included, would probably prefer to avoid during the primaries.</p>
<p>Or am I wrong about that? Could this be a smart play for Paul, especially given how itâ€™ll make Jeb Bush squirm?</p>

Republican Sen. Rand Paul is standing by his statement that most vaccinations should be "voluntary," telling CNBC that a parent's choice not to vaccinate a child is "an issue of freedom." In an interview with the network Monday, Paul said that vaccines are "a good thing" but that parents "should have some input" into whether or not their children must get them. And he gave credence to the idea - disputed by the majority of the scientific community - that vaccination can lead to mental disabilities. "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound...

A group of zealous supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz’ (R-TX) 2016 presidential run is planning to launch a ‘Ted Cruz Air Force’ (TCAF) in the coming months prior to the Republican primaries that begin in less than a year. According to TCAF, “Ted Cruz clearly has the support of the grassroots. He will also have air support.” TCAF says its most prominent air feature will be the “Ted Cruz Blimp,” but it also plans on recruiting “antique aircraft, towed aerial banners, light sport aircraft … [and] parachutes.” Member of TCAF Jerry Collette says he’s going to do everything he can...

Rand Paul has cast himself as a Diogenes for the modern era, a truth-seeker who can't seem to find an honest man — or woman — no matter where he shines his lamp in Washington. That's why his willingness to say almost anything about himself and other Republicans, regardless of whether it's true, poses an existential threat to his brand. It's only a matter of time before the offended start punching back publicly, and that will surely start with fellow Republicans. Many of them had a right to be aggrieved after Paul's speech this weekend at the First in the...

9/11 COVER-UP? The latest claim isn’t from conspiracy theorists--it’s from a former top US Senator. He says documents prove Saudi Arabia helped pull off the attacks, and that the FBI hid the truth. Shep has details:

“The difference is purely in implementation. If you had a philosophical discussion on what the world should look like, there would be no difference.”(AUDIO-AT-LINK) Rand Paul’s brother says that when it comes to ideology, there’s “no difference” between his brother, the Kentucky senator and Republican presidential candidate, and his father, the former congressman and three-time presidential candidate. Ronnie Paul, the eldest son of the former congressman and sometimes-surrogate for his brother, was speaking with libertarian podcaster Israel Anderson. He said that both his brother and father held the same beliefs, there’s just a difference in the implementation of how to...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul split with senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to vote for a healthcare bill Tuesday night that will add about half a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next several decades.Paul sided with the overwhelming majority of senators and representatives who voted for the bill, in a decision almost certain to come up in the primary race, where he is currently joined by Cruz and Rubio.The â€śdoc-fixâ€ť bill solves a recurring problem in the way Medicare payments are made to doctors, extends a childrenÂ’s health insurance program, and requires higher-income seniors to pay higher...

If Ron Paul weren’t Ron Paul, I’d assume this denunciation was just a stunt orchestrated by him and Rand to put some foreign-policy distance between them before the primaries. Are you a mainstream conservative worried that President Rand would be too much like Ron in office? Well, here you go. Let your conscience be eased. The nation’s most famous isolationist thinks his boy’s a bit of a warmonger. But c’mon. With the possible exception of his vote for the Afghanistan AUMF in 2001, has Ron Paul ever endorsed a position that he didn’t sincerely hold? Of course he thinks the...

AUSTIN - Well, this could make for an awkward conversation at Thanksgiving dinner. Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Saturday dismissed as a "joke" the demand by U.S. senators of his party that they must approve a potential agreement over the Middle East country's nuclear capabilities. "I strongly disagree with the motivation of that statement made by so many members of Congress, especially in the Senate," Paul said at a conference on liberty at the University of Texas at Austin, presumably referring to an open letter senators sent to Iranian officials describing any deal not approved by them as...

Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign for the presidency is not more than a few days old and already his mercurial father, former Rep. Ron Paul, himself a former presidential candidate, is starting to make trouble for his son. According to a Saturday story in the Houston Chronicle, the elder Paul called the famous letter that 47 Republican senators, including the younger Paul, sent to the Iranian mullahs “a joke.” The letter informed the Iranian leadership that any agreement that they reached with President Obama concerning Iran’s nuclear bomb program would not outlast the Obama presidency lacking congressional ratification.

AUSTIN ...Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Saturday dismissed as a "joke" the demand by U.S. senators of his party that they must approve a potential agreement over the Middle East country's nuclear capabilities. "I strongly disagree with the motivation of that statement made by so many members of Congress, especially in the Senate," Paul said at a conference on liberty at the University of Texas at Austin, presumably referring to an open letter senators sent to Iranian officials describing any deal not approved by them as informal..... "They're out to stop peace," he said. "They're terrified that peace...

Riddle me this, fellow Republicans. An NBC survey April 9 reports that a huge majority (70%) of Americans doubts that Iran will abide by any agreement to limit its nuclear arms–but a majority (54%) still thinks Obama will do a better job than the Republicans in dealing with Iran! A majority of Americans – 54 percent – trust Barack Obama to do a better job handling an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, compared to 42 percent who say they trust the Republicans in Congress. But nearly 7 in 10 Americans say that Iran is not likely to abide...

The other night as my wife Kelsey and I were getting ready for bed, we were talking about the 2016 presidential race and discussing how things would shape up for the first-in-the-nation caucus state – our home state – of Iowa. We had both heard that Ted Cruz was set to announce his candidacy at midnight, and were keeping a finger on the pulse of the reaction within our liberty-heavy political circles. My wife’s phone buzzed, and then I heard her groan. Another of our friends had asked her who we would be supporting for president in the state where...

IOWA CITY, Iowa—Rand Paul kicked off his first public appearance in the Hawkeye State since launching his anti-establishment presidential campaign with a question that was meant as a rallying cry. “Do we have any liberty lovers here?” he asked a crowd composed mostly of University of Iowa students, who sported Rand stickers and responded with cheers and whistles. But if Paul’s going to have any chance of contending for his party’s nomination, he better hope their nonlibertarian-leaning parents feel the same way. The Iowa caucus will, of course, be the first major test for the entire GOP field—but the first-in-the-nation...

In a relentless stream of Rand Paul-talk in the past 48 hours, three bits stood out for width of their perspective or freshness of their data. McKay Coppins at Buzzfeed reads the Paul campaign strategy as trying to be everything to everyone in his Party for maximal potential appeal. Some points from Coppins: On one side, there are those in Rand world who argue his best bet is to unite his core base of libertarian activists with elements of the GOP establishment and traditional donor class. In the other camp are advisers who say conservative evangelicals — many of whom...

It is a genuinely interesting topic, if you are at all interested in Rand Paul, since his rise to political prominence was so dependent on his father Ron Paul, and his success since them at becoming a fully normalized and mediagenic hot property has to some degree been dependent on his not being his father. A bevy of sources on the eve of Rand's presidential campaign becoming officially official wonder: how is he going to deal with dear old dad? First, the New York Times, which quotes me explaining why things like dual personal appearances are probably not going to...

As he pulls together his expected presidential campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. Rand Paul is confronted by defections from an unexpected quarter: the die-hard idealists whose energy powered his father’s campaigns. That network of committed supporters was expected to convey to Paul, the natural successor to Ron Paul’s libertarian movement, providing him with a plug-and-play ground organization in the make-or-break early voting states. But instead of embracing the Kentucky senator, many of those grass-roots activists are turning their backs on him, disillusioned by the younger Paul’s concessions to mainstream politics. Story Continued Below One of the most prominent...

Nearly a week since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), igniting a nationwide debate about whether the controversial law invites discrimination based on sexual orientation, most potential Republican presidential candidates have taken the opportunity to bolster their conservative credentials. "Governor Pence has done the right thing," said former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Monday. “I want to commend Governor Mike Pence for his support of religious freedom, especially in the face of fierce opposition,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said in a written statement. “Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the...